Woman pulled from Browns River in Jericho

Rescue crews pulled a 20-year-old woman out of the Browns River just before midnight Thursday.

“We do know that her and her boyfriend were in the general area and they had an argument,” said 1st Asst. Chief Mathew Champlin of the Underhill-Jericho Fire Dept. “The next thing we knew we got called to her being down here on the rock.”

“I drove by at 9:45 p.m. and there were two people leaning over the guardrail,” said Dylan Fortin. “I drove through 10 minutes later, and fire trucks were showing up.”

Champlin said multiple people called 911 saying they heard a woman screaming from the rocks below.

Witnesses told investigators they saw the woman holding onto a large rock in the middle of the river, Vermont State Police said. A bystander had already gotten to the rock to help the woman when crews arrived.

Investigators said the woman, who lives in North Hero, Vt., fell upstream from the falls and was carried downstream near to where she was eventually rescued.

The rock the woman was holding was about 40 feet below the bridge and was flanked by steep banks on both sides, police said.

“We got a light on her, and assigned a couple of people to keep eyes on her,” Champlin said. “We started assessing to see if there were any other people in the water.”

Crews determined there was nobody else in danger. It is unclear whether they were searching for the woman’s boyfriend who may have also been in the water. Officials said he returned to the bridge during the rescue.

The Underhill-Jericho department called in a ladder truck from Essex Junction in order to hoist the woman from the rocks, Champlin said.